Page 34 of In Bed with a Highland Liar

At first, Lilith didn’t know what it was that he was showing her. The trees were thick in that part of the land, shrubs and ferns growing around their roots in a tangle of green. In the midst of it, though, Lilith could see a distinct brown shape, moving back and forth.

“A fawn,” she said, approaching the creature slowly. Aaden was right behind her, moving just as cautiously, but it didn’t make a difference. The fawn spotted them and stilled entirely for a moment before it began to thrash wildly, trying to get itself free from the branches where it had tangled itself. “Dae ye think it’s hurt?”

“It may be,” Aaden said. As they got close, he crouched down next to the fawn, reaching out but not touching it just yet.

Lilith looked around for the mother, but she couldn’t see another deer in the area. Perhaps they had been separated, she thought, or perhaps she simply couldn’t see it. Deer were skittish, after all, and wouldn’t approach them if they had the choice to stay away.

Slowly, Aaden reached for his knife and Lilith’s heart stopped. She tried to reach for his hand, to stop him, but he moved too quickly for her and all she managed to do was stumble forward, rightening the poor creature even more.

“It’s alright,” Aaden said, and Lilith didn’t know if he was talking to her or to the fawn. “It’s hurt, but it’s fine.”

“Stop!” Lilith shouted, but Aaden only gave her a curious look before he began to saw at the branches to free the fawn.

It took Lilith a few moments to realize that Aaden had no intention of killing the fawn to save it from its pain. She breathed a sigh of relief and then mentally berated herself for thinking Aaden would hurt the poor creature in the first place.

He wasn’t a cruel man, after all. Infuriating yes, but not cruel.

The moment the fawn sensed that it was free, it stood on its legs and ran off, and it was only then that Lilith saw its mother, waiting for it at the edge of a nearby clearing. She watched until they were reunited and then turned to Aaden, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Thank ye,” she said. “Thank ye fer this.”

“Ye dinnae need tae thank me,” Aaden said. “I would have done it anyway. There was nae reason fer the creature tae suffer.”

He, too, looked at the fawn and the mother with a smile on his face, and Lilith couldn’t help but think that perhaps she had been a little too judgmental of him.

Standing up, Aaden dusted himself off and then offered Lilith a hand. She took it, his palm warm and calloused from sword training, the simple touch reminding her of the night they had shared together. The memory of his fingers pleasuring her was crystal clear in her mind, a strange tingling travelling down her spine at the mere thought of it.

Pleasure had nothing to do with love, Aaden had told her, but perhaps it had something to do with like. Lilith couldn’t claim to love him—she could hardly claim to like him most of the time, but when he acted with such gentleness and kindness, it was difficult to keep her attraction at bay.

Lilith was about to take Aaden’s hand and pull him to the lake when she froze, her gaze falling on three men who approached them slowly, with blades in their hands. They were dressed in tattered, almost threadbare clothes, but they seemed much cleaner than any brigands Lilith had ever seen before.

That hardly mattered, though, when in every other way, they looked the part.

“Aaden,” she whispered, her hand finding his arm and curling tightly around it. With his knife already out, Aaden placed himself between her and the three men, effectively shielding her from them.

Can he fight all three o’ them? He is outnumbered, even if he is strong.

“Yer time is almost over,” one of the men said and Lilith didn’t know what to make of it or if he was even speaking to her. Was it a threat on their lives? Was he trying to tell them they would soon be dead?

The man had hardly finished speaking when he launched himself at the two of them, his companions following close behind. Aaden didn’t hesitate to push Lilith back, but she didn’t think it would matter. If they managed to kill him, then they would get to her, too.

As Aaden parried a blow, one of the men slid behind him, charging straight at Lilith. Before she knew it, though, Aaden was there, putting himself in front of her once more and taking the blow that was meant for her in the shoulder with a grunt of pain. Lilith’s heart threatened to jump out of her throat as she looked at Aaden, blood fountaining out of his shoulder where the blade had sunk in.

Aaden bit back a pained groan, though he was hardly successful at dampening the sound. His shirt was stained a deep red and his hand flew to his shoulder in an attempt to lessen the bleeding and the pain, even as he still clutched the knife and assumed a battle stance, planting his feet firmly on the ground.

As the other two closed in on them, Aaden passed the blade to his left hand after wiping some of the blood off his palm. Lilith couldn’t help but wonder if he could fight with his left hand, but there was little time for her to ponder when the others were still approaching. Looking around frantically, she searched for anything she could use as a weapon to protect herself and make the fight a little more even. Her eyes landed on a large rock and she swiftly picked it up, swinging it in the air as she stood and catching the man who had come near her on the side of the head.

The man stumbled back, eyes wide in horror and confusion as his hand came up to touch the wound on his temple. Lilith’s chest heaved wildly as she watched him, hand curling around the stone to deliver another blow if he decided to attack again.

“Go!” he shouted instead, and the three of them fled, dispersing in different directions in the woods. For brigands, they weren’t particularly insistent, it seemed to Lilith, but then again, she had managed to injure one of them. Perhaps they feared for their lives more than they wanted gold.

The moment they were gone, Aaden turned to her, his shaking hands pulling her into a tight embrace. Lilith collapsed against him, burying her face in his shoulder, and let him hold her in silence for a long while.

“Are ye hurt?” Aaden asked once he pulled back, just enough to look at her carefully, searching for injuries.

“Nay,” Lilith assured him. “But ye are. We should head back tae the castle so the healer can fix yer shoulder.”

“I’m fine,” Aaden said, just as Lilith had expected him to. She wasn’t going to let him get away with it so easily, though.